The combination of family travel, lingering illness and Fallout 3 has kept me away from the blog this week, but I should be back to a normal schedule beginning Sunday. There’s actual news, including my next writing project and an update (post-mortem?) on Shazam!. Plus, I really want to write something about this misguided memo […]

There’s a strong likelihood that the networks (and the internet) will announce the presidential winner before the polls close in California. But if you’re headed to vote after work — or if you’re waiting in lines for hours — I’d urge you not to head home just because the big race has been decided. In […]

Results are in, and here are the eight members elected to the WGA Board: John Bowman Katherine Fugate David Goodman Howard Michael Gould Mark Gunn Karen Harris Kathy Kiernan Aaron Mendelsohn Katherine Fugate, Karen Harris and Howard Michael Gould are new to the Board; the other five are incumbents. Congrats to all of them. In […]

So forgive any wonkiness for the next few minutes. I’m hunting for a single blank line. UPDATE (2:03 PM): The problem was a single blank line at the start of the XML file, introduced by extra blank lines at the end of the (hacked) Live Comments Preview plug-in. I took advantage of the downtime to […]

There’s now an official Scrippets plug-in for WordPress, available here. It’s been working well in the test sites we’ve seeded it to, but if any issues come up in its wider release, plug-in creator Nima Yousefi will be able to send out one-click upgrades. 1 So if you’re running a WordPress blog, by all means […]

Hope to be 100% in a few hours. Surprisingly, it all seems to be working okay. Even the wiki, which I was certain would break. If you notice anything broken, leave a comment, or email ask (you know the symbol) johnaugust (dot) com.

Thanks to the hard work of Nima Yousefi, Will Carlough and Andy Maloney, we have a Scrippets plugin that seems to be working pretty reliably. It’s installed at this site now, and we’ll be seeding it out to a few other screenwriting-oriented websites over the next few days to make sure it plays well with […]

I won’t throw around terms like “beta,” but if you’re interested in checking out what we have working on the scrippet front, you can visit the test blog and leave a comment to see how it works. You can leave feedback either here or there. There’s still more testing to be done to make sure […]

It’s been weirdly under-reported, but Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that seeks to amend the California constitution to ban same-sex marriage, had its official language changed earlier this month. It used to read as follows: LIMIT ON MARRIAGE. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a […]

This morning’s decision by the California Supreme Court means I no longer have to be an unwed father. And for a change, even our Governor is onboard: I respect the court’s decision and as governor, I will uphold its ruling. As I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the […]

I was very surprised and saddened to read that writer-director Anthony Minghella has died. His adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley is both justly acclaimed and criminally under-appreciated: every shot, every line, every performance is dead on. Every time I watch it, I’m filled with envy and self-doubt — a strangely empowering combination when seen […]

Honestly, I feel like I’m cheating on all of you when I guest-blog for EW.com. But I did it again. And then there are the non-Nines variables: babysitting grandparents, geriatric pugs, and the Tim Burton retrospective I want to attend. Plus eight more lessons of Pimsleur Italian, so I can politely explain why I’m throwing […]

I have a long essay in this month’s Men’s Health, the one with Jamie Foxx on the cover. It’s not specifically about The Nines, but that’s the main reason I agreed to do it. To buy a single-page ad in the magazine would be more than our entire marketing budget. But for a four-page article, […]

Ryan and I did an interview for The Advocate about the movie, the business, and our trip to Malawi. It should be on stands now (or soon), with Ryan on the cover. Yes, the headline reads, “Hollywood’s hottest young star runs off with his gay director.” They conveniently left off, “…to help paint an orphan […]

A reader alluded to it in the comments of an earlier post, but today we can officially announce that The Nines was chosen to play the Venice Film Festival as part of Critics’ Week. (At least, I assume we can announce it. We were sworn to double-super secrecy, which is presumably now over, since it […]

I’m back from Africa — physically, at least. Mentally, I’m still floating somewhere over Dakar. The potent combination of jetlag and unprocessed emotion is making it very difficult to commit to that last leap over the Atlantic. I was only gone two weeks, but it felt like months. Like an alternate timeline, with extra days […]

Over the next two weeks, you’ll notice a bit of deja vu at this site: old articles suddenly popping up on the front page, with new dates and old comments. It’s not a technical glitch. I’m putting the site into reruns while I’m out of the country and off the grid. I’m going to Africa […]

I’m up at Sundance for the summer filmmakers’ lab, where I’ve worked as an advisor for the past seven years. For those unfamiliar with the labs, it’s a workshop in which newer filmmakers (generally writer-directors) meet with established screenwriters in one-on-one sessions to sort out issues in their scripts. There’s a winter lab, which occurs […]